What did you do in KSP1 today?

[XB-70A]

1 hour ago, Clipperride said:

May be a little on the overpowered side?

Overpowered? In KSP there is no limit to the power!

[Mycroft]

I just got done designing a ship that UTTERLY DWARFS my Leviathan and Archemedes. Super pumped about that. But here's some perspective: Archemedes, the current heaviest craft on the site, weighs some 50 kilotons on its own, and some 116 kilotons with its booster. The concept craft I'm working on weighs 97 kilotons on its own, and I haven't even finished designing it. No Tweakscale was used on either ship.

[Triop]

Trip to the Mun, old skool style.

[Sharpy]

Contract: Rescue Achelle Kerman and her craft from orbit of Gilly.

An appropriate recovery vessel has been obtained.

The pilot takes the vessel to the target.

Victim located.

The rescuee must vacate the damaged craft, which is then stored inside the rescue vessel.

Subsequently, damaged craft is loaded into the rescue vessel. The rescuee takes it ("I broke it, I'll carry it.")

Return trajectory is established.

 

Both kerbals return to the base.

Vessels are placed in storage.

 

(AES pod on Gilly - a joke within a joke...)

[septemberWaves]

20 minutes ago, Mycroft said:

The concept craft I'm working on weighs 97 kilotons

Are you trying to de-orbit moons with that?

[Angelo Kerman]

I created a cargo lift for the Heisenberg and did an initial test. Here the rover is approaching the test airship

Cargo lift is nearly down. I need to figure out how to draw cables that connect the cargo lift to the airship. I think the old Quantum Struts code might show me how..

Keeping the rover on the platform is quite a challenge! I might need to add some kind of railings since you can't attach parts to the lift. It's a problem with joints..

Almost there...

Whew, made it!

There's a bug in the code that doesn't restore the cargo lift to its original upright position, but I can fix that. So for now the rover is stuck.

[LaytheDragon]

 

Over the last few days, I changed my visual mod setup for high-performance scatterer-free yet still-good-looking visuals.

^{_{(On the other hand, I need to remind myself to update Texture Replacer to the fixed reflections version)}}

Right now, I am a bit indecisive on what shade of blue to give Kerbin from afar. Which to choose? The Sci-fi Visual Enhancements saturated dark blue, or the Scatterer-alike light blue?

  

 

Meanwhile, my newest mothership design, the HexaHauler, is about finished, with everything intended in the design being on the ship, and a TWR above 1 being met (I may need to raise the TWR even more, but whether this is required is unknown). All problems with the ship directly exploding have been slain, and the only problem left, already with two easy fixes to try, is the ship crushing the runway pad after settling completely (the launchpad is too small), causing the runway pad to blow up itself and the ship above.

This is the second-to-most recent version of the HexaHauler. The most recent version has better crew containers, with space for 24 kerbals in the crew containers, and 13 in the pods (if each kerbal in a pod gets a container seat reserved, then 11 permanently-non-pod kerbals can reside). For those who haven't seen my previous posts on developing this ship, the odd-looking contraption in the middle is the open-able entrance to the aesthetics-only-in-stock stock cargo bay, able to fit an inflated 10 meter heatshield through in any orientation. Mining equipment has been added now, so theoretically, if it made it to Minmus's surface on the first launch, I could refuel it and start its service.

How does it's height compare to real-life object heights, you ask? It is 99 meters tall in KSP, as tall as an up-to-30-story building, such as the 25 story building below. It is also about the height of the KSP VAB, and while the ship is still in KSP scales, it is 12 meters shorter than a real-scale Saturn 5.

4 hours ago, Mycroft said:

I just got done designing a ship that UTTERLY DWARFS my Leviathan and Archemedes. Super pumped about that. But here's some perspective: Archemedes, the current heaviest craft on the site, weighs some 50 kilotons on its own, and some 116 kilotons with its booster. The concept craft I'm working on weighs 97 kilotons on its own, and I haven't even finished designing it. No Tweakscale was used on either ship.

Even I can't beat your Archemedes... I only have 30K tons on my craft  (of course, you're dealing with heavily-modded starships, while I massive stock rocket SSTOs with large hollow cargo bays).

Edited December 8, 2016 by LaytheDragon

[XB-70A]

For performances reasons related to these unefficient, bad, ugly, &@#*! Thumper SRB I radically changed the full stock Eos shuttle :

Now four Kickbacks take the role but taking just the place of two. The monop' tanks are replaced by small fuel tanks to simulate the OMS (the OME still are made of Spark). The orbiter got five Thud for its part. The ET now is made two fairings containing the fuel tanks, and a new two pieces vertical stabilizer has been placed instead of the canard.

 

We have main engines start...

 

SRB ignition...

 

And lift off, lift off of the Eos flight 102, lift off, yeah lift off I repeat lift o... what?! I should stop screaming during each launch to let the others enjoy the engines melody? Oww...

 

The climb is surprisingly easy, smooth and equilibrate (I mean for one of my craft).

 

Keep on accelerating to raise the Pe to 140 km.

ET separation. I had to place two Sepatron to make it clear the orbiter faster.

The ET still had some fuel onboard so I used it to begin the circularization but also had to release it, shut down the Thud SSME and immediately start the OMS at the same time.

 

Maneuvering and docking with Outer Heaven at 200 km. The barely 1000 m/s available with the orbiter are pretty just to give a good flexibility but still can give some fun.

This first part of the Eos new version is some kind of a success. Now we have to see how the second part with the re-entry and landing will finish.

 

Edited December 8, 2016 by XB-70A

[Odonian]

Delivered a few more modules to Acromyrmex 1, now named more colloquially Leafcutter 1. Above is the last one making its final approach. Below is the finished product.

Edited December 8, 2016 by Odonian

[Mycroft]

6 hours ago, eloquentJane said:

Are you trying to de-orbit moons with that?

Honestly, it only has a TWR of 1, so I probably couldn't, but it would be frikin AWESOME if it was possible to deorbit moons in KSP, cause I would totally go for it and cause a massive catastrophe by making the Mun hit Kerbin. Ooh wouldn't that be nice if KSP supported colliding planets? And especially if the planets broke apart? Ohhhh man that would be cool.

3 hours ago, LaytheDragon said:

Even I can't beat your Archemedes... I only have 30K tons on my craft  (of course, you're dealing with heavily-modded starships, while I massive stock rocket SSTOs with large hollow cargo bays).

Wow completely stock (without Tweakscale) 30 kiloton ships are very impressive. I wouldn't exactly say that my ships are heavily modded. I mean yes they're heavy and yes they're modded, but I only use maybe 2 mods in the making of them, B9 for the big stuff and LLL for detail. But the real challenge will be launching it. I have a massive booster that can take a 50 kiloton payload, while weighing almost that much, but a payload double that... I'm not sure if that's even possible, let alone if my laptop can handle it (yes I launched Archimedes on a laptop)

But seriously all stock 30 kiloton ships are pretty cool and nothing to sneeze at. Hey, 99 meters is exactly ⅓ Archimedes' height. Hmm neat!

[capi3101]

(1.1.3, FAR to go) Well, the last 24 hours have been pretty big for my space program. After having previously retrieved five Kerbal tourists from the Kerbinport space station and with eight more Kerbals still there - including two who had been the subjects of Minmus rescue contracts - an Auk II passenger spaceplane was dispatched to pick up the remaining Kerbals and finish out their contracts. Managed to do very well on the launch window; I got a rendezvous before the plane had completed its first orbit. Docking was another matter - I must've bounced the plane off the station's solar and radiator panels four times before I finally got frustrated enough to pull the damn things in. After doing that I got the plane docked and the Kerbals transferred. Before de-orbiting, a long awaited window to adjust the orbit of Beep Beep 7d came up; I finished that contract up and then put myself to the task of de-orbiting and landing the plane. Had a damn beautiful landing at KSC 27 (overshot the Runway coming in and had to come around). The plane's successful retrieval netted me √880k - putting my space program up to nearly √3M - and cleared seven contracts at once, leaving me with just two: Fly By Duna and Explore Duna. First transfer window comes up in another seventy days.

I had my final overnight shift of this week last night, so once again I've had five hours this morning to play KSP. I decided I'd kill the time between now and the Duna window by taking more contracts. First up was an job to mine 550 units of ore from Minmus, easily done with the Deepwater Horizon refinery. A Goliath test at the landing site was next - which I did with Lusitania 7 and took two tries because I made the idiotic attempt to complete the mission before I actually accepted the contract - followed by a quick VIP up and down trip, which I did using a Kerbal Tour Bus 7c craft. I then proceeded to unlock many more contracts: one to deliver Ore from Mün to Kerbin - I finally get to use the Auk VI for its intended purpose! - a rescue mission at Kerbin, another rescue mission at Minmus, three rescue missions from Mün, a junk-and-kerbal mission from Mün, a junk mission at Mün, two tourist missions to Minmus and another VIP up-and-down. 

After cleaning up some of the extant craft of Kerbals whose rescue missions had been fulfilled, Big Stink arrived at the Minmusport space station. Jeb, Buremy, Milrod and Edner will transferred to the craft, while Val and Bill transferred themselves into the station's Spamcan 7a lander and headed down to the surface. The two Kerbals landed safely and planted flags before heading off to rescue pilot Frovey from orbit, after which the craft safely returned to Minmusport. Meanwhile, I decided I would attempt to complete two rescue missions over Mün with the original Spamcan 7 monoprop craft docked at the Munport space station. The first mission to rescue Engineer Kelzor Kerman went without incident. The second mission to pick up Engineer Wilberry Kerman was much trickier on account of the fact that his pod was in a high orbit retrograde to the Spamcan. Wilberry was retrieved, but the Spamcan ran out of fuel after having readjusted its plane to match Munport. The station's Old Bessie 7 refueling lander was dispatched with a full load of monoprop and affected an emergency refueling operation, with both craft returning to Munport almost simultaneously...

Old Bessie 7 making its rendezous with Munport, with Spamcan 7 nearby.

Juggling their rendezvous burns was fun, as was their docking - I left Old Bessie parked 100 meters from Munport when I went to conduct Spamcan 7's docking; it had drifted to 250 meters by the time I was able to return. The worst part of it is that Wilberry was the subject of the junk-and-Kerbal mission...he didn't need to leave his craft. Enough monoprop remains at Munport for me to refuel the Spamcan and conduct the other two rescue missions later; I've already verified that they are in low Münar orbit and all ships are going in roughly the same direction. Strange Cargo will be dispatched to pick up the four Kerbals once I have picked up the other two and Jeb (the ship' nominal capsule commander) returns from Minmus.

The Hellhound 7 rover dispatched to Minmus - which I dubbed Lunkhead - arrived and made planetfall in the vicinity of Deepwater Horizon, being put immediately to work to see how good of a site the refinery was based on. Turns out the site wasn't great but it wasn't terrible either; the ore reading jumped from something like 2.13% to 6.32% just 200 meters away from the refinery's site. I may look for a better site later as time allows. Meanwhile, the Old Bessie lander stationed at Minmusport was dispatched and loaded, and then returned to Minmusport where its payload was used to refuel Big Stink. Big Stink then departed Minmusport and made the burn for home; she was still in Minmus's SOI when I finished playing this morning, but history would suggest she'll be back at Kerbin in another five or six days.

Ended my night with a pair of Bill Clinton 7a grabber probe launches, which I'll use to conduct the junk clearing missions I've got at Mün. I still need to pick up the other two Kerbals from Mün, get Next Objective prepped up to run tourists to Minmus and get said tourists up to Kerbinport. I'm thinking about using an Auk I double-capacity rescue spaceplane to couple the LKO rescue mission with the VIP up-and-down; might as well give the VIP a story, right? I also need to design an ore lander - Old Bessie isn't designed to haul anything but fuel, and Auk VI is limited to LKO range, so I've got an unfilled niche in my space program that I suddenly need to fill. Last thing I need to do - start prepping for Duna. I need to re-evaluate my current tech to see what's capable of making it to the red planet and make adjustments to anything that I'll need out there that's incapable of making the journey on its own.

I might've forgotten to mention the contract I took to haul ore from Ike to Duna, so I've committed myself to hauling Piper Alpha 7 refineries out there...good thing I've made all that money......

[Halfdan]

today i loaded up a prototype for my heavy lander design on my automated cargo ship "korolev" headed for duna, as soon as all the other colony modules are docked, it will begin its journey

 

also continued improving my reusable large booster by adding more parashoots and improving the fuel reserves

this time it touched down gently at 2 m/s with all legs intact and even some fuel to spare 

[Gaarst]

Finished building my new LEO space station.

Spoiler

And went to Mercury. (Flew by at night unfortunately, I'm not good enough to gravity assists to nail the hour of arrival)

Spoiler

 

[MitchS]

@Triop (I can't quote your lander post from Tuesday for some work-computer reason, but) I'm feeling compelled to tell you that I'm losing my mind over it. Using a sideways utility bay for the body? It's beautiful. Every bit of it. I'd like to see what you have inside the bay, and I would LOVE to see any other ships/landers you have along that engineering/aesthetic theme. Light, good-looking landers are my favorite challenge in this game, and yours is my favorite to date.

[Firemetal]

Built a 200 ton Eve lander that can get from the surface of Eve back to Kerbin without needing a return ship in low Eve orbit. Now I'm trying to get it there. I experimented with transfer stages that could get it there full but I'd need a monster to get it all to orbit. So I decided I would use mining on the surface to refuel it and take the lander there dry. It still is a 70 ton monstrosity without fuel but at least it is doable without a Behemoth. I don't want to complicate it by adding mining gear to the lander itself so I'm going to use a rover to do it. The rover will connect to the lander using a grabbing arm. I also decided to put the ladder on the rover along with a small lander can that I clipped inside to act as an airlock. This is a bit cheap but I really don't want to have to waste a lot of time getting the ladder to work and then adding a system to decouple it. I'm also going to need to send ore scanning satellites and comsats to Eve in ORE-der (see what I did there?) to be able to control the rover on the surface. These also act as relay for if the scanner is blocked by Eve at any point in time.

But that is it for now.

Fire

[Triop]

Edited December 8, 2016 by Triop

[Alpha_Mike_741]

Made

That

[SmashingKirby148]

Attempting to have Kerbals first step afoot onto the Mun. BUUUUT, because I'm a dummy I forgot pictures of the launch. Yaaaaay.

[SmashingKirby148]

We have landed! Now timne for science!

[Josh IN SPACE]

I made it to the Mun! But I don't understand much about networks, so I lost connection with my orbiter on the dark side of the Mun and it went splat.

Edited December 8, 2016 by Josh IN SPACE
Didn't post the links correctly the first time.

[septemberWaves]

I made a new N1 for exploring Arkas. It's late today so I'll make a proper update about this tomorrow...

To be continued...

[Halfdan]

automated freighter korolev is fully loaded with modules for the duna colony and my experimental heavy lander

the next missions will be the delivery of "mover" class assembly rovers and a "Badger" class mining rover to the construction site

 

[Clipperride]

Today, I finally got round to updating KSP from 1.2 to 1.2.2 and even remembered to copy it to another folder in case future updates are not to my liking

I also completed my first mining contracts on the Mun and Minmus.  One reason I'm enjoying career (after being a die hard Science Mode player) is the contract payments show you how efficient your designs are.  I like the cost of the launch to be under ½ of the payment.  So, a Mk 1 command pod, Mk 1 crew carrier (for the engineers) a couple of small ore tanks (for the 550 ore) plus gigantor arrays, thermal control, drills etc and I had a nice little mining rig.

I did, however, forget the batteries, which wasn't a problem for mining as the solar panels handled the load, but it did make the reentry a little more "explodey" than was ideal. The 50 units of Electrickery wasn't enough to maintain control during the firey bit of the descent and we lost some of the panels and radiators.  Had I been a bit more on the ball I would have probably fixed the issue for the second mission, but ....... Still, a nice little profit for the planned year 3 exploration.

[Mycroft]

Well due to the fact that the 97 kiloton version was very stubby, it turned into a 198 kiloton monster with just 670 parts. It is 266 meters long.

What is my life?

Spacious

[SpaceastronautX]

I recently do an Mun base with an drilling rig and also the core with three Kerbals 

But one died by the EVA yetpack  at least it wasn't Jeb,Bob,Bill or Val.

Sorry by the small picture

16 minutes ago, Mycroft said:

Well due to the fact that the 97 kiloton version was very stubby, it turned into a 198 kiloton monster with just 670 parts. It is 266 meters long.

What is my life?

Spacious

Oh god almost 200 millons tons!! That is like the weight of Kerbin!!